Home
schooling is exactly what the name implies: a school in the home. Home schooling
is an age-old educational method that has experienced a resurgence, beginning in
the 1970s in the United States. This resurgence indicates a definite trend away
from conventional schooling and standardized educational methods, and a return
to the traditional tutorial process involving individualized instruction and
apprenticeships. Furthermore, the home schooling movement is representative of a
desire of parents to personally teach their own children at home in order to
restore the traditional Christian values in education and bring unity to the
family. These parents, for the most part, are seeking to train their children in
God's principals, so they will grow up to love and obey God.

What About Socialization?

When
someone asks of home education, "What about socialization?," he or she
usually means,"How
will
these children get along with others when they are not in large, age-segregated
groups of their peers the majority of the day?" He might mean, "How
will this home-educated child learn to accept the American way of thinking and
living?" Of course, the questioner presupposes a number of unspoken
assumptions. For example, she assumes that a conventional-school classroom is
the best setting for learning how to get along with others, that a child in such
a classroom will learn best how to stand on his own, that an age-segregated
situation with a government-certified teacher is the best for learning how to
function and think
in society, and that the conventional classroom setting is the healthiest
setting for the psychological development of a child
who is trying to become a mature adult in a democratic
republic.

There have been several
studies done that disprove this negative assumption associated with home
education. Most have found that home schooled children were quite involved with
extracurricular activities and actually functioned as well or better than
children schooled in the conventional
method. The greatest benefit from home school socialization
is that the child can be protected from
the negative socialization. In fact, the only "socialization" or
aspect of the "real world"
which they miss out on by not attending public school is unhealthy peer
pressure, crime, and immorality. Of course, the average home schooler wisely
learns about these things from afar instead of being personally involved in
crime or immorality or perhaps being a victim.